Muslims

I have to admit that I know extremely little about this, so if anyone here knows what the traditions and teachings, beliefs, etc., are, please feel free to post in this thread.
Thanks. :)

Hi,

Well exactly what do you want to know? Muslims believe there is only one God, The God, in Arabic that is pronounced Al-Ilah. But in Arabic the two words are joined together and so becomes Allah, meaning the (supreme) God. Muslims believe in Adam/Eve, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and all the other prophets including the messiah Jesus (or Isa in Arabic). However Muslims believe in one more prophet, the final prophet, according to Islam and the Qur'an, and his name was Muhammad. Muslims believe in the final book/revelation that was revealed to Muhammad, this is called the Qur'an, which mentions the Torah, Psalms and the Gospels. Anything else anyone wants to know about Islam just let me know please.

How are Muslim women treated and looked upon?

I found a link and would enjoy seeing a discussion about it...please see a thread in the serious debate section entitled "Truth about Islam".
Thanks. :)
By the way, I have a slow modem and am going to try and view it myself.

Women are very precious. They are our mothers, our sister, our wives and our daughters. We don’t want any harm to come to them, nor does God. That is way in the Qur’an God has assigned for them a special dress code, the hijab. This means women must cover their heads, with a scarf of some sort, as well as not show their private parts, this directive means they wear any clothes which cover their body from the neck-down to their ankles. The purpose of this is to reduce lust from men and the image of women being sex-objects. The similar attires were worn by early Jews and Christians too, but know mostly only nuns dress in a similar manor. People respect nuns, in Islam women must have the same respect. When Islam finally came to Arabia 1500 years ago, women were liberated, at that time women were traded and inherited in wills etc but then Muhammad came and changed all that, women were given the right to own property and wealth and to maintain that in her name after marriage, the right to vote, the right to divorce, and given status in community, as well as honour. It is a shame however a lot of women are mistreated in Muslim countries, the individual countries culture has taken over religion. People have become more backwards, Islam teaches men and women are equal, but a lot of individuals, not just Muslims, don’t treat women as equals.

Thanks for your response, Elijah. :)
I have a question. I was at the supermarket the other day, and I came across a different line of meats. There was chicken, beef and some others.
I thought it was Kosher meats (Jewish), but when I asked a young man at the supermarket about these meats, he told me that they weren't Jewish, but Muslim.
I was a little embarrassed, because this was the first time I had actually spent time really looking around, and the only specialty meats I have noticed were either Jewish or Chinese.
So my question to you...what makes them different from other meats?
I have to say that I did purchase a package of beef (steak) and it was delicious.

Hi Wren,
How are you? I hope you are fine. Thanks for the question. You asked what makes our meat special or different. Well to simply put it, it is the way it is cut, I must warn you if you are squeamish look away now. Say then someone is slaughtering a chicken or a cow, Muslims cut them by first saying 'In the name of God, the most Gracious and most Merciful' - we do this to bless the meat and to remember God, Who with out, we would not have the chicken/cow meat in the first place. Secondly, I'm not sure how all the slaughter houses in the world work, but in accordance with Islam, we must cut the throat of the chicken or cow first, this is to allow all the blood to pump and flow out of the body. By doing this the meat is much more pure, this is also a law following on to the commandment given to the prophet Moses (pbuh).

"However, in any of your communities you may slaughter and eat to your heart's desire as much meat as the LORD, your God, has blessed you with; and the unclean as well as the clean may eat it, as they do the gazelle or the deer.
Only, you shall not partake of the blood, but must pour it out on the ground like water." - Deuteronomy 12:15/16

We cannot guarantee that all the meat in shops have been cut in the decreed way, so that is why some shops have opened special meat sections, to appeal to the wider faith groups. I hope this answers your question.

Muslims do not believe in the messiah Jesus as you stated. They believe he was a great teacher or prophet only.

Elijah,
I have begun a new thread in the debate section (denominations section) entitled "Muslims".
Please feel free to continue this discussion there. :)
Xiana, you are welcome to as well, this ought to be an interesting discussion.

Here is the link to the thread, for your convenience.

http://z6.invisionfree.com/denominations/i...p?showtopic=172

Elijah,
You answered my question well about the meats; thanks. :)
I wanted to ask...what sort of attire are Muslim women expected to wear?

Hi Wren,

They can wear anything they want, as long as their heads are covered (hijab), and their privates parts are not exposed. By this I mean, no showing of the cleavage, your thighs/legs, your bums, this all entices more lust amongst men, and even some women. Muslim women should dress modestly, as should the men. I must emphasise, Muslim women, do not have to wear the burka or full burka's, or vails to cover their faces, this is an option. However the latter styles have become compulsory in some Muslim countries, but in Islam you are not aloud to force women to wear the middle-east style attires (burka's), but some countries wrongly do.

Thanks for the concise explanation Elijah. It is sad to think that some Muslims have taken to the extreme the dress code for women. It seems to be a common misconception that ALL Muslim women must dress a certain way, behave a certain way and are then treated as second-class citizens or worse.

I have my doubts as to whether hiding a womans body almost entirely would stop the lustful thoughts of men though. Some men are quite taken by the whole "mystery package" thing!

Hi Alex, glad you could join in :)

Yeah, I'd agree with you to an extent. Obviously men (and women) lust no matter what, but what you can't deny is that the more flesh is revealed the more the lust ignites. I mean, who would excite more lust, a nun or a super model. In saying all this the Muslim dress code is not just for the reduction of lust, but also for the women to keep their honour and respect. I'm sure you've seen or heard some people calling women who wear skimpy outfits as sluts or whores, now this is not right, but people still call women this, if women dress modestly, there would be no basis for such false accusations to be lodged, unless they had evidence. I hope I haven't upset any of my sisters on this forum with my comments.

I just purchased a chicken with the name "Zabiha Halal" on early last week.
I roasted it with some potatoes, and I must say that this chicken was delicious! I am hooked now. I just bought another one on Thursday, and plan to roast it tonight. It is quite different from the chicken I am used to in that there is absolutely no blood or feathers on it. Sometimes when I buy a chicken, even though it is cleaned and de-feathered, I occasionally find some blood or feathers, but this one...nothing.
I wasn't even sure if I was going to like it or not, because I had never tried it until last week, but it was so good, as I said, I am roasting another one tonight. I told my neighbour about how good it was, and she went and bought one, too. It is kind of funny in a way, because neither or us are Muslims, but here we are buying Muslim products. :)

Hi Wren,
I'm glad that you liked the chicken and are benefiting from it.
Peace be to you. :)

Thanks for your further explanation Elijah. It is a fascinating topic and one that I'm sure spurns lots of debate with people you know ... from a Muslim background and more "western".

We have a HUGE drama unfolding in Australia right now ... due to a Muslim cleric who has made statements he now claims to have been taken out of context ... and yet they have quite clearly been made to create some kind of furor. While he may be rather fanatical with his viewpoints ... there are now calls for him to be deported from Australia.

It's a very sad situation and is causing great unrest between Muslims and non-Muslims alike. His interpretation in what HE feels women should be dressed like seems to have made him openly accuse those women NOT dressed to the Muslim standards of modesty ... open targets for sexual assault and rough treatment at the hands of men, Muslim men included!

He's been both fiercely defended and chastised by his own Muslim community! Sad isn't it!

I've added the link in case you wanted to read up on it! I personally don't have a problem with any religion ... but to see the drama currently unfolding over this man's rather unusual outburst ... is quite off-putting! It must make it very difficult for others of the Muslim faith.

Ooops! Totally forgot the link! Sorry Elijah! :rolleyes:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/sheik-...1749260119.html

(Never mastered that thing where you put the link and only have something like "click here" showing!!!!)

This post has been edited by Alex on Oct 26 2006, 11:44 AM

Hi Alex,
Thanks for the heads up and the link, it was interesting. The clerics comments were very irresponsible, but I have one comment to make. The article eluded to the fact the cleric didn't speak English, is this true? If so were his comments in his mother tongue? If they were in his mother tongue, is it possible that his quotes were mistranslated? I'm just curios.

I communicate with the one and only God often and he informs me that Muhammad is the final prophet, but for Islam only. Fore God sends to people the prophet of that which they can accept on their own level of understanding intelect and acceptance.

Gods blessing always ken

Thanks for your input, Zebity...and a warm welcome to the forum!

:welcome: :gathering: :coffee:

Hi Zebety, welcome to the forum,

So you are saying Muhammad (pbuh) did not come to all of humanity, which is what the Qur'an says. Islam means peace and submission to the Will of God, mankind’s submission of God started with Adam, glorified by Abraham, saved by Moses, renovated by Jesus, and finalised by Muhammad (peace be upon all the prophets). I'm curios do you believe there are other new prophets that are still to come?